He was held as speechless as though his tongue were paralyzed; he was bound by his word of honor; he was weighted with a woman's secret.
"Don't look at me so, Bertie, for mercy's sake! Speak! Where were you ?" "I cannot tell you; but I was not there." The words were calm; there was a great resolve in them, moreover; but his voice was hoarse and his lips shook.

He paid a bitter price for the butterfly pleasure of a summer-day love.
"Cannot tell me!--cannot?
You mean you have forgotten!" "I cannot tell you; it is enough." There was an almost fierce and sullen desperation in the answer; its firmness was not shaken, but the ordeal was terrible.

A woman's reputation--a thing so lightly thrown away with an idler's word, a Lovelace's smile!--that was all he had to sacrifice to clear himself from the toils gathering around him.

That was all! And his word of honor.
Baroni bent his head with an ironic mockery of sympathy.
"I feared so, my lord.

Mr.Cecil 'cannot tell.' As it happens, my partner can tell.